Poor man's guzzi looks too small?

[Rough Edge racing]

Fay and I were on the Norton, in town, and a friend of hers who rides sometimes with her husband on some big 1800cc V-twin was there.   She asked where we were going, and we said Tennessee ... she couldn't believe it.  "On that tiny little bike?" she said.

I mean, it's an 850 Norton.   A 1970s SuperBike.   A rompin' stompin' rootin' tootin' 12-second quarter mile do-the-ton bike.   Lucky for me I have no "Size" hangups and we rode to Tennessee anyway, without having to visit my therapist first.

But the "Big Bike" marketeers won the hearts-and-minds battle for the modern motorcyclist years ago ....

Lannis

  Aside from the well prepared and tuned road test bikes, were the Norton 850's true 12 second machines? I had a good running 74 850 in the 80's and I believe low to mid 13's was more representative of most of them..The 850 Lemans felt a lot faster especially after 60 mph through the gears.

[Lannis]

  Aside from the well prepared and tuned road test bikes, were the Norton 850's true 12 second machines? I had a good running 74 850 in the 80's and I believe low to mid 13's was more representative of most of them..The 850 Lemans felt a lot faster especially after 60 mph through the gears.

Well, then, a "nominal" 12-second bike, meaning that "Cycle" magazine, with 120 pound Peewee Gleason on board, in a comparison article with the "Superbikes of 1973" along with the 750 Kawasaki triple, the Triumph Trident, the Z-1, and a few others, was able to squeeze out something like a 12.95 quarter from a lightly worked-over one ....

At any rate, at one time it was a Big Bike and a fast bike, but time and marketing have moved on .....

Lannis

[Huzo]

Here, i made test video, it is CX 500 cafe racer , and my height is 184cm , but does it look too small? https://youtu.be/gRTTTPx73Pk

In Australia they were known as the "plastic maggot", dunno why, I reckon they looked and went ok. You used to see lots of them at rallies, anyway yours has a lot less plastic and looks nothing like a maggot... Great proportion and looks fun.

[Lannis]

But kidding aside dude, if you love it ride it............. who cares how it looks, who cares what others think.

Well, sometimes it's interesting to KNOW what other people think, especially your buds on WG who will give you an honest answer without any trying to build you up or beat you down .... but it's up to you what you DO with the opinions they give you.   Obviously it would be silly to worry about them, but ....

Once, for "Mods and Rockers Day" down in Durham NC, I put little Ace bars on my BSA Firebird Scrambler, and mounted a little peanut tank on it off an old BSA chopper, and got a big old patchwork leather jacket, tall boots with white socks turned down over the top, and a Davida Jet helmet, and went as a Rocker, a 3-hour ride down there it was and NOT comfortable.

My good friends there advised me that I looked like a circus bear on a unicycle, and maybe some bigger tires than the stock 3.25 x 18 would be a good idea, and if I went over a hard bump, a proctologist's help would be needed to recover the bike, and other matey words of wisdom ...

You don't have to care (I did the same thing the next year) but it can be good to know .....

Lannis